May 2, 2015

A proposal to cut prison population

Slate - A team led by UCLA public policy professor Mark A.R. Kleiman published a provocative proposal, outlining a system they say would go a long way toward achieving an 80 percent reduction in the prison population, without sacrificing public safety.* Advertisement

What Kleiman and his co-authors suggest is letting offenders out of prison before their sentences are up and placing them in apartments rented by the government, where they can be monitored 24/7 via webcam. In their proposed scenario, convicts are assigned public service jobs, while retaining their status as prisoners, and are subject to a set of strict rules regarding things like curfew, drug use, and geographic location. Each apartment is located in a community otherwise populated by fully free citizens and functions, in the words of Kleiman and his co-authors, “as a prison without bars.”

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

In other words, treat them like most other US citizens.

Anonymous said...

Oh great! Concentrated poverty along with draconian rules...sounds like slavery.

Why make it complicated? It is probably better just to pardon any low level, non-violent drug offenses and release those who were fully pardoned (that is,
no other convictions).